Anglesey hotel bans kitchen staff from speaking Welsh

[Treffie]

If you can't speak Welsh in Wales, where the fuck can you speak it? :mad:

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Staff at an Anglesey hotel have been banned by managers from speaking Welsh when the head chef is in the kitchen.

The Carreg Mon near Llanfairpwll asked employees not to use Welsh because he does not speak the language and is responsible for health and safety.

The Welsh Language Board (WLB) is to write to the hotel and wants a meeting with the managers.

General manager Ruth Hogan insisted the hotel was not discriminating against the language.

Of its 25 staff, only three are non-Welsh speaking.

"If anything we encourage the Welsh language to be spoken here. There is absolutely no discrimination against the Welsh or English language here, it's only about safety standards."

A WLB spokesperson said: "With more than 60% of the island's population speaking the language, a figure which rises to 87% in some communities, Anglesey is one of the strongholds of the Welsh language

"It is therefore a shock and a great disappointment that an employer on the island takes this stance against the language."

The WLB added: "This could be a matter the Equalities and Human Rights Commission may want to take up. Under current legislation, the Welsh Language Board's powers do not cover such instances.

"But it is a clear example why protecting people's freedom to speak Welsh at the workplace has been included in the new Welsh language legislation, which will come to force next year."

Link (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-13080586)

[Loki]

Boycott the hotel all the way into bankruptcy!

[Grumpy Cat]

Some employers in Canada ban employees from speaking French at work. One of my old ones was like that, I won't mention the name but actually Duceppe named said company in the political leaders' debate for not being accommodating in Quebec. This was in NS, and it was a separatist who said it, but I actually thought of dropping an e-mail to M. Duceppe to tell him his suspicions can be confirmed. :cool:

When I was reprimanded for doing so, I was told it was because it made unilingual workers feel uneasy, like we were talking shit about them, and told me about some Israelis speaking Hebrew and an Israeli immigrant worker overheard them doing that. I was actually dealing with a customer who couldn't speak English well when I was "caught".

[Lithium]

You have so beautiful language... really, where you will speak it if not in Wales? :D

[Magister Eckhart]

This will slip by, but let them try to ban speaking Arabic, Farsi or Urdu and watch the riots and protests explode across the streets of Britain.

http://stevengoddard.files.wordpress.com/2010/12/powell.jpg

[Beorn]

I can see the resentment here, but why would the Head Chef, the man who runs the kitchen, want to spend his whole shift amongst people talking a language they are not conversed in and feels alienated by in his own workplace?

If I ran a business and was paying the Head Chef a lot of money to make my business make a lot of money, then out would go the dissenters and in would come those who wish to earn a bob or two.

[Osweo]

I can see the resentment here, but why would the Head Chef, the man who runs the kitchen, want to spend his whole shift amongst people talking a language they are not conversed in and feels alienated by in his own workplace?
I went and got a job in a place where I spent my whole day amongst people talking a language I wasn't fluent in, in a country where English was not the first language. Hey presto, I LEARNT the language. If this feller lives on Anglesey, he should learn. What is he? Thick or summat? Fucking ideal place to learn such an interesting language as Welsh.


If I ran a business and was paying the Head Chef a lot of money to make my business make a lot of money, then out would go the dissenters and in would come those who wish to earn a bob or two.
What? Polacks!?

That's the mentality behind all demographic disasters in this country. Why wish it on the Welsh of Anglesey?

If you run a business in a place where a certain language is predominant, you need to bear this in mind when bringing in new managers, or else provide for their learning of it, or at least indicate to them that it is desirable they learn. :....

(Tref, beth yw yr enw pobol yn Mon? ((Ffwc grammar)) Moniau? Moniaeg? :p )

[Beorn]

If this feller lives on Anglesey, he should learn. What is he? Thick or summat? Fucking ideal place to learn such an interesting language as Welsh.

The last time I checked Anglesey was in Great Britain. The language spoken in this state is English.

Either the Head Chef is discriminated against as a citizen in his own state or the people working in the hotel adhere to the 'law' of the state.


If you run a business in a place* where a certain language is predominant, you need to bear this in mind when bringing in new managers* WANTED: a head chef to run the kitchens of an up and coming hotel situated in Anglesey, UK. Must have previous experience. A selection of self prepared menus and references are a must. £30 PA.



We live in Britain. We are British. British speak English. We must never deviate from the state.

[Osweo]

I'll reply to this for the benefit of those who don't realise you're doing statist role-play and Tanzen mit Totalitarianismus today. ;)


The last time I checked Anglesey was in Great Britain. The language spoken in this state is English.
Great Britain is an island, and home to several nations with several languages. English is the language of state, due to demographic reasons, but a restaurant on a near monoglot Welsh island is not the House of Commons...


Either the Head Chef is discriminated against as a citizen in his own state or the people working in the hotel adhere to the 'law' of the state.
Devil take the 'law' of an anti-national state!

[Treffie]

I can see the resentment here, but why would the Head Chef, the man who runs the kitchen, want to spend his whole shift amongst people talking a language they are not conversed in and feels alienated by in his own workplace?

Tough shit for him. He should learn the language.


If I ran a business and was paying the Head Chef a lot of money to make my business make a lot of money, then out would go the dissenters and in would come those who wish to earn a bob or two.

It sounds like the head chef is a prima donna who feels paranoid that people may be chatting about him.

What this hotel has done is discriminate the native language speakers in their homeland.

[Treffie]

(Tref, beth yw yr enw pobol yn Mon? ((Ffwc grammar)) Moniau? Moniaeg? :p )

Dwi ddim yn siwr yn hollol - Gogs? :D

[Osweo]

Dwi ddim yn siwr yn hollol - Gogs? :D

Gah! :p

If there isn't a widely known nickname, is it at least possible to concoct a collective noun, or a descriptive adjective, from the toponym Mo^n itself? Or is there such a word as 'islander', that might fit?

[Treffie]

Gah! :p

If there isn't a widely known nickname, is it at least possible to concoct a collective noun, or a descriptive adjective, from the toponym Mo^n itself? Or is there such a word as 'islander', that might fit?

I'd probably use something like `Mônwyr` as a simple nickname, but maybe `Derwyddon` pertaining to the Druids would be more fitting. On the other hand, Anglesey was known as the `Bread Basket of Wales`(Môn Mam Cymru), so we could use something like `mamiau`(mothers) or `pobwyr`(bakers)?

Can't say I've ever thought about it though.

[Albion]

The last time I checked Anglesey was in Great Britain. The language spoken in this state is English.


And that reasoning is what lost us the Norn language, Cornish and Manx. Native languages should be encouraged, English in one of them as is Welsh. I don't see why the Welsh should be force-fed English in their own country, sounds a bit like Welsh Not (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welsh_not) to me.

Besides, English is becoming standardised by the state and education based on Southern Dialects so that our traditional dialects are being forced out. Western and Northern dialects are some of the "purer" Germanic forms of English whereas Southern Dialects contain more French.

[Magister Eckhart]

And that reasoning is what lost us the Norn language, Cornish and Manx. Native languages should be encouraged, English in one of them as is Welsh. I don't see why the Welsh should be force-fed English in their own country, sounds a bit like Welsh Not (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welsh_not) to me.

Besides, English is becoming standardised by the state and education based on Southern Dialects so that our traditional dialects are being forced out. Western and Northern dialects are some of the "purer" Germanic forms of English whereas Southern Dialects contain more French.


Die Sprache ist das Haus des Seins!

Language is the house of being; it is the preservation of the body of encultured existence that constitutes ethnicity and nationhood. Without language, the nation (read: "culture," "ethnicity," "race") dies, either fading away or killed off by another. There can be no genuine Welsh, Scots, or Irish identity unless the native languages of those places is preserved: likewise, the northern dialects of English spoken in former Northumbria preserves that Anglo-Saxon nationhood, or at least a shadow thereof, that cannot be completely trampled by the Normans, as has occurred in the South.

In this way, any body that operates under the pretense of protecting the commonwealth (i.e. the government) must, indeed is duty-bound to defend native tongues against the incursion of foreign tongues, because to do so defends native race against the incursion of foreign race ("race" here used in the Spenglerian sense) and of the indigina (referring to "the native, 'son-of-the-soil'") against the natio (referring to "a body of foreigners within the homeland").

[Albion]

Without language, the nation (read: "culture," "ethnicity," "race") dies, either fading away or killed off by another.

I wouldn't quite say that, but certainly the distinctions between ethnicities are broken down if languages are replaced.
Like with the former Norn Speakers - Shetlanders, Orcadians and people around Caithness, originally they were very distinct from the Scots, perhaps having a lot in common with the Faroese. Now despite being absorbed into the Scots there is still a underlying cultural difference although it has been "dilluted" by Scottish settlers and recent migrants.


likewise, the northern dialects of English spoken in former Northumbria preserves that Anglo-Saxon nationhood, or at least a shadow thereof, that cannot be completely trampled by the Normans, as has occurred in the South.


Yes, England has always had regional distinctions despite being rather unified throughout much of its history when compared to continental nations. The breaking down of the regional identities and what can almost be described as the standardising shift between the English has mainly be rather recent, post 1700s.
However I think the Northern dialects and distinctions between different areas of England will survive for the most part although getting the BBC and wider media to abandon BBC English (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC_English) and to have a range of dialects and accents expressed in different regions would help a long way too.

[Magister Eckhart]

I wouldn't quite say that, but certainly the distinctions between ethnicities are broken down if languages are replaced.
Like with the former Norn Speakers - Shetlanders, Orcadians and people around Caithness, originally they were very distinct from the Scots, perhaps having a lot in common with the Faroese. Now despite being absorbed into the Scots there is still a underlying cultural difference although it has been "dilluted" by Scottish settlers and recent migrants.

They will linger, but ultimately they can only die at this point. Language encapsulates the body of culture, like an epidermis; remove the skin, though, and it will not take long for a body to die because of this lack of protection. A similar analogy would be to call language the necessary nourishment of culture, because it defines the inescapable reality that makes culture - without the language to express a specific cultural reality, a new cultural reality conveyed by a different language overtakes the original, such that the original culture, unable to express itself and preserve itself, is rendered mute and unable to partake of the nourishment of language - it lingers, but it will eventually starve, just like any living being denied nourishment.

[Treffie]

I wouldn't quite say that, but certainly the distinctions between ethnicities are broken down if languages are replaced.

Without the language, the heart of the culture is ripped out. `Cenedl heb iaith yw cenedl heb galon` - as we say in Wales.

[Beorn]

Tough shit for him. He should learn the language.

I suspect that it will be the freshly employed kitchen staff who will be speaking English, with perhaps a few stragglers who need the wage.


It sounds like the head chef is a prima donna who feels paranoid that people may be chatting about him.

All chefs are prima donnas. I've yet to meet a chef who isn't, but yes, I expect he does feel paranoid and rightly so.


What this hotel has done is discriminate the native language speakers in their homeland.

No it isn't. What the hotel has done is correctly pander to the head chef in order to run the business successfully. This head chef has the right as a human citizen of the world to work in a healthy and vibrant atmosphere which doesn't exclude, discriminate and alienate people.

If the people who work the kitchen can't be bothered to learn the language of business, then let them talk the language of the Welsh in more sedate areas of life.


Native languages should be encouraged

Of course. Let's just make sure that they are kept out of business.

[Treffie]

No it isn't. What the hotel has done is correctly pander to the head chef in order to run the business successfully. This head chef has the right as a human citizen of the world to work in a healthy and vibrant atmosphere which doesn't exclude, discriminate and alienate people.

Rubbish. We have the right to converse in our own language whatever part of the UK we are in.


If the people who work the kitchen can't be bothered to learn the language of business, then let them talk the language of the Welsh in more sedate areas of life.

You're forgetting one thing. In these Welsh speaking areas, Welsh is the language of business and there's nothing anyone can do about it. Natives in these areas speak their native language not only because they want to, but because they feel more comfortable speaking it rather than speak an alien language. If one denies the use of a native language, one is, in effect killing it off.